In this months News and Updates:

FY2024 Legislative Agenda

The MA Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) have released their FY2024 Legislative Agenda. View the full budget request and affiliate info sheets, including the MA Library System’s info sheet on the MBLC’s Legislative Agenda website: https://mblclegislativeagenda.com

Thank you, MLS Board Members

Thank you to our outgoing Executive Board Members, who have shared their time and expertise with our organization. We are grateful for your participation in MLS!

  • Stephanie Friree Ford, McLean Hospital, Belmont
  • Emily Levine, Brockton Public Library

Welcome to our newly elected board members:

  • Shannon Compton, BayPath University, Longmeadow
  • Allyson Malik, Oak Bluffs Public Library

We’re looking forward to working with you! For more about our Executive Board, including our full roster and meeting minutes, please visit: https://guides.masslibsystem.org/executive-board

Intellectual Freedom Webinar Series 

The Massachusetts Library System (MLS) is proud to announce that it is working with the American Library Association (ALA) to offer a 5-webinar series designed to help you navigate intellectual freedom issues:

We hope you will be able to join us live for each of these live webinars.  However, if you are unable to attend, please note that we will record each of these webinars and make them available to MLS members on our Vimeo page for a period of 18 months.

To register for these sessions, and to see all of our upcoming live learning opportunities, please visit our Events Calendar.

For more information and resources to help you navigate intellectual freedom challenges, please visit our Intellectual Freedom LibGuide.

OverDrive K-12 Shared Sora Collection

OverDrive K-12 Shared Sora Collection Reaches #2 in the US & #3 in the World for 2022

The OverDrive K-12 Shared Sora Collection is the #1 collection in New England, #2 in the United States, and #3 in the world for total circulations for 2022, among all of OverDrive’s K-12 customers. The Shared Sora Collection circulated 1,329,467 eBooks and audiobooks in 2022, the second year in a row that the program has exceeded one million checkouts! There were 1,004,720.6 reading hours on the Sora app, with 80,587 unqiue users.

The most circulated titles in each category were:

Juvenile – eBook:

  • Popularity: Big Nate Comix, Volume 4 by Lincoln Perice (6,244 checkouts)
  • Big Nate Blasts Off: Big Nate Series, Book 8 by Lincoln Peirce (6,128 checkouts)
  • Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series, Book 1 by Jeff Kinney (6,015 checkouts)

Juvenile – audiobook:

  • Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series, Book 1 by Jeff Kinney (1,348 checkouts)
  • The Lightning Thief: Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series, Book 1 (962 checkouts)
  • Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: Harry Potter Series, Book 1 (942 checkouts)

YA or adult – eBook:

  • One of Us is Lying: One of Us is Lying Series, Book 1 (3,116 checkouts)
  • A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder Series, Book 1 by Holly Jackson (1,972 checkouts)
  • Heartstopper, Volume 1 by Alice Oseman (1,182 checkouts)

YA or adult – audiobook:

  • One of Us is Lying: One of Us is Lying Series, Book 1 (641 checkouts)
  • A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder Series, Book 1 by Holly Jackson (434 checkouts)
  • The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (377 checkouts)

This program would not be possible without our participating schools and school librarians. Congratulations and thank you to all the participating schools for their outstanding effort in embracing this program and making it a huge success!

The OverDrive K-12 Shared Sora Collection program consists of 565+ K-12 MLS member schools in Massachusetts that share the same collection of titles from OverDrive and access the titles on the Sora platform. The collection contains over 53,000 unique eBooks and audiobooks across a variety of subject areas including juvenile fiction and non-fiction, young adult fiction and non-fiction, manga, comic books and graphic novels, and more. For more information, see: https://guides.masslibsystem.org/cec/home. 

Delivery Update

What happens when there is a snowstorm or inclement weather? During the winter months, inclement weather can result in delivery delays or cancellations.

Is your library receiving Delivery Updates and Announcements? Join the Delivery email list and stay informed on delivery delays, cancellations, and other important information. Members can also find route delays and cancellation located in the News tab of our Delivery Guide.

Need to notify Delivery of closures contact delivery@masslibsystem.org or customerservice@shipoptima.com.

Updated Strategic Planning LibGuide

The Massachusetts Library System is pleased to announce that an updated Strategic Planning for Libraries Guide is now available!

This guide was redesigned to support all member libraries in their work to create a strategic plan. MLS Consultants Kristi Chadwick and Michelle Eberle updated the guide to ensure that not only was the information current and practical, but that the new structure would help libraries find exactly what they need for the planning process.

Our thanks also to the MLS CE Advisory Committee and MBLC staff for reviewing and trying out the guide before its launch.

If you have any questions or would like to share feedback on the new guide, please contact Kristi Chadwick or Michelle Eberle.

Top Six Topics Answered on EANE’s HR Hotline

The Massachusetts Library System (MLS) is working with the Employers Association of the NorthEast (EANE) to provide public library members with free access to EANE’s HR Hotline service. EANE’s HR Hotline is open Monday – Friday, 8 am – 5 pm, and it is staffed by seven certified HR professionals.

EANE answers over 5,000 hotline calls per year from organizations across the Northeast. Here is a list of the top six topics that they answer most frequently:

  1. Employee Relations: Performance management questions, hiring and termination issues, conflict resolution strategies.
  2. Safety: COVID issues, organizational safety planning.
  3. Compensation & Benefits: Compensation benchmarking, market rates, pay equity.
  4. Leaves of Absence & Absence Management: Support around workforce planning and managing the unexpected.
  5. State & Federal Compliance: Helping organizations stay up to date on compliance issues.
  6. Recruiting & Onboarding Best Practices: Helping organizations create a better employee experience.

Got an HR question? Call EANE’s HR Hotline today. There is no charge to access this service. (Please note that EANE staff may not be fully versed in local policies, which may fall under jurisdictional laws). View our LibGuide for more information.

MLS Library Director News

Do you have library director changes to share? Let us know of library director changes (and the effective date of the changes) so we can officially welcome new directors to the MLS community and say goodbye to retiring directors.

Contact: Amanda Fauver (amanda@masslibsystem.org)

Congratulations to the MLS members who were acknowledged as Library Journal Star Libraries!

The LJ Index rates U.S. public libraries based on selected per capita output measures. The 2022 scores and ratings are based on FY20 data from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Public Library Survey (PLS). For 2022—based on 2020 data—5,359 public libraries received LJ Index scores, and 258 of them received Stars.

Cambridge Public Library
West Tisbury Free Public Library
Lincoln Public Library
Brooks Free Library
Wellesley Free Library
Cary Memorial Library
Weston Public Library
Wellfleet Public Library
Provincetown Public Library
Snow Library
Osterville Village Library
Eldredge Public Library
Vineyard Haven Public Library
Oak Bluffs Public Library
Jacob Sears Memorial Library (East Dennis)
Dennis Memorial Library Association
Sunderland Public Library
Phinehas S. Newton Library (Royalston)
West Dennis Free Public Library
South Dennis Free Public Library

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